One day equals two years? How much do you know about the magical Mercury?

Speaking of the eight planets in the solar system, apart from the earth where we live, Mars is the first thing that people think of and probably know best. It has been a hot spot in recent years. Headlines such as interstellar migration, alien life, and the discovery of liquid water on Mars can be seen in the news almost every day. However, we know very little about another planet, Mercury, which is also very close to the Earth.

The introduction of mercury has to mention its solar system. First of all, Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system. The average radius of Mercury is about 2439.7 1.0km, which is about 38% of that of radius of the earth and only slightly larger than the radius of the moon. Mercury has no satellites, but it has the fastest orbital speed in the solar system: 48 kilometers per second, and it only takes 15 minutes to orbit the earth at the orbital speed of mercury.

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun in the solar system, and its orbital eccentricity is 0.2 1, which is the largest among all planets. Simply put, its elliptical orbit is the most' flat', and its perihelion distance is less than one-third of the distance from the earth to the sun. Because of this, mercury is often shrouded in strong sunlight, and it is quite difficult to survey, which is one of the important reasons why human understanding of mercury is still quite limited until now.

From a distance, Mercury is somewhat similar to the familiar moon, with endless plains and craters and basins left by a large number of meteorites. It is worth mentioning that the Caroli Basin on Mercury is one of the largest craters known to mankind at present, with a diameter of1.550km.. Because there is almost no atmosphere around the surface of Mercury, the temperature difference between day and night of Mercury is the largest in the solar system. During the day when the sun is shining directly, the maximum temperature can reach 430 degrees, and at night, the temperature will drop to-172, where the sun can't shine. Due to the special inclination of Mercury's rotation, the sun will never be seen in some areas of Mercury's poles, and the bottom of the potholes in these areas is -65438+ all the year round.

Geologically, Mercury is one of the four terrestrial planets in the solar system. Its internal structure is similar to that of the Earth, but its core accounts for at least 60% of the total mass. Current research generally supports the view that there is a huge molten iron core inside Mercury, which also explains why Mercury has low mass and gravity, but its density is similar to that of the Earth.

Mercury's magnetic field strength is only 1. 1% of that of the earth. Although the intensity is pitiful, research shows that the strength and shape of mercury's magnetic field are very stable. Mercury and Earth are the only two planets in the solar system with global magnetic fields.

No life can survive on this planet. However, if we assume that we can board Mercury and reach its surface, we will find some interesting phenomena on Mercury. The period of revolution of Mercury has about 88 Earth days a year, and its rotation period is about 58.6 Earth days a day. Mercury revolves around the sun twice every three times, which is called spin orbit vibration. Because of this * * * vibration relationship, coupled with the distance between Mercury's orbit and the sun, in some places on Mercury, when we observe the rising period of the sun, at first, the sun will rise slowly like the earth, but when it rises to the middle, Mercury is about four earth days earlier than its orbit perihelion, and then the angular velocity of Mercury's orbit is almost equal to its rotation speed. Visually, we will find that the sun in the sky stops rising, and then, when Mercury reaches perihelion, the angular velocity of its orbit gradually exceeds its rotation speed. At this time, standing on mercury, we will find that the sun's trajectory is magically retrograde, and the sun is back. Then, after four days of perihelion, the sun will return to its normal track and rise again. Because of this magical law, the same hemisphere on Mercury will not be illuminated until Mercury completely orbits the sun for two weeks, that is, a day and night on Mercury (approximately equivalent to 176 Earth Days), during which Mercury also orbits the sun for two weeks. Generally speaking, one day on Mercury is equivalent to two years. Imagine how interesting it would be if we lived on mercury.

In the short space history of mankind, so far only two spacecraft have arrived near Mercury for survey. They are Mariner 10 launched by NASA in 1974 and Messenger launched by the United States in 2004. Most of the data and photos we got about Mercury today came from these two detectors. In addition, on June 20 18, 10, Bepi Colombo, jointly developed by ESA and Japan, was successfully launched and is currently on its way to Mercury. In the plan, Bepiccolombo will use Venus to fly over the earth 1 time, Venus twice and Mercury five times, and finally cross.

Finally, recent studies, especially the simulation study of Mercury's unusual orbit, show that the eccentricity of Mercury's orbit may be chaotic and unstable. In the next few million years, due to the influence of other planets, it will change from 0 (perfect circle) to 0.45, and the interaction with Jupiter will increase the perihelion distance, which will lead to about 65,438+0% in the next 5 billion years. If it happens, it may lead to changes in the orbits of other planets in the solar system, which may eventually be the doomsday catastrophe of the entire solar system and mankind. I just don't know where human civilization will go in that distant and unknown future. Perhaps it has long been submerged in the endless history of the universe, or it may have become an advanced civilization that can travel freely between stars as imagined in science fiction.

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